Nemagon Survivors

On March 11, 2005, approximately 2,500 farm workers and their families affected by the virulent pesticide, Nemagon, began a 200 km march from the banana-growing department of Chinandega, Nicaragua. Roughly 6,000 - 7,000 affected men, women and children, representing 16 different plantations and identified by the acronym: ASOTRAEXDANAOBON, have established an encampment made up of make-shift tents and tarps in front of the National Assembly. They are demanding that the Nicaraguan government adopt a position in support of the workers. Fifty of the banana workers have begun a hunger strike to raise awareness…

To date, it is estimated that 20,500 Nicaraguan families (approximately 85,000 people) have been afflicted with moderate to severe physiological and psychological health complications, such as the ones cited above, and an additional 2,000 people have already died as a result of the commercial use of the nematicide.

The protestors state that they will not leave the encampment until their government has acted justly by recognizing the horrible conditions in which they've been left to die, covering their burgeoning medical costs, and banning the use of all pesticides that contain the virulent agents associated with Nemagon.

Nemagon, whose active ingredient is dibromo-chloro-propane (DBCP), is a virulent soil fumigant and pesticide used, in part, to kill burrowing rootworms - nematodes - which damage and cause discoloration in bananas. The chemical was widely sold throughout Central America, the Caribbean and the Philippines throughout the 1960's, 70's and into the mid 1980's and used on banana, sugarcane, pineapple, and cotton crops. The pesticide was manufactured by several companies including: Occidental Chemical, Dow Chemical and Shell Oil Companies; the latter two companies exported upwards of 24 million pounds of Nemagon each year during this time. The transnational companies that used Nemagon include: Standard Fruit Company (Dole is its sister company in the U.S.), Del Monte, and United Fruit (now Chiquita).

In 1958, unpublished initial findings of the chemicals' toxicity by Dow Chemical and Shell Oil revealed adverse effects to the endocrine system. Without modification, the chemical companies received approval for the commercial distribution and sale of Nemagon in 1964. Tragically, the companies offered no recommendations for protective clothing or special handling of the chemical. The conscious decision by the companies to conceal any warnings was done without any regard for the farm workers, their families or the ecosystem where the chemical was used.

In 1977, workers and their union at an Occidental production plant in California identified the first human sterility cases linked to DBCP. The product was banned in the United States in 1979 after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pulled Nemagon off the market in the US citing its toxic effects on chromosomes (DNA). It was also concluded that DBCP can persist in the environment - contaminating the air, soil and water - and can be passed on through generations. Costa Rica banned Nemagon in 1978. Two of the three major banana-producing companies in Central America switched to other, more expensive nematicides in 1977, but Standard Fruit continued using Nemagon. Although Nemagon is said to be discontinued, Victorino Espinoza, the spokesman for the farm workers and many others, have expressed concerns that DBCP is still being used in some pesticides. There is also a great deal of concern that seepage from buried tanks of the pesticide continue to contaminate the environment and the water supply. Nemagon has been classified by the World Health Organization as an "extremely hazardous" chemical.

On January 17th, 2001, due to the efforts of ASOTRAEXDAN, the Nicaraguan National Assembly passed Law 364, which lays the legal groundwork upon which farm workers can sue corporations, though this law is explicitly threatened by a proposal of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

In December 2002, three U.S. corporations - Dole, Dow and Shell - were found liable under Nicaraguan Law 364 and were ordered to pay US$490 million in a class action suit filed by 583 banana workers affected by Nemagon. Each of these companies has denied the legality of the case on fallacious grounds, and are calling for a new trial in the U.S.

The Nicaraguan workers' suit is not the first to seek compensation for harm caused by DBCP. In the early 1990s, more than 16,000 banana plantation workers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Philippines filed a class-action lawsuit in Texas against a number of U.S. fruit and chemical companies asking for compensation for permanent sterility linked to DBCP exposure [see "The South's Day in Court," Multinational Monitor, July/August 1990]. In 1997, the four chemical corporations that produced DBCP: Amvac, Dow, Occidental and Shell, agreed to pay $41.5 million in an out-of court settlement that equated to only about $100 per person; in addition, the victims had to sign a waiver that they will not file suits against the companies for five generations.

In 2003, the Dole Food Company contended that fraudulent claims had been made by the victims and filed a countersuit in late December against the workers, their legal representatives, and the doctors who evaluated the patients' health. The basis of this claim is derived from the fact that in addition to the workers, the plaintiffs in the suit also included family and community members who were affected by contaminated drinking water and by breathing in the Nemagon chemical as it was applied to crops using various irrigation methods. The transnational companies are seeking a total of $17 billion in this countersuit. Dole officials have filed under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law, which generally applies to mafia crimes. According to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, both Shell and Dow joined the suit, though without employing the RICO statute.

Actions:
1 - Raise funds, awareness and solidarity for the Nemagon victims who are in the encampment and whose food, water and medical supplies are quite sparse.
2 - Organize accompaniment / send medicine and doctors / identify other needs of the victims.
3 - Test the levels of DBCP in the soils, rivers and ground water in the department of Chinandega and the surrounding region for degree of contamination.
4 - Organize a boycott of Chiquita and Dole bananas, and identify other foods to be targeted including those of Del Monte.
5 - Seek solidarity actions with unions, faith-based communities, and environmental groups.
6 - Lobby members of Congress and the State Dept.
7 - Send letters to the chemical companies demanding reparation and financial compensation.
8 - Send letters and apply pressure on the Nicaragua government to support the rights of the Nemagon victims and the legality of Law 364.

As a person concerned about human rights, I am writing to express my chagrin upon hearing that you have refused to pay damages awarded on December 11, 2002, by the Third Civil District Court of Managua, Nicaragua, which found your company guilty of causing injury to Nicaraguan banana workers and to their families. The damages were incurred from use of the chemical known as Dibromo-Chloro-Propane (DBCP) and sold under the commercial names of Nemagon and Fumazone. The use of this chemical inflicted irreversible damage, both physical and psychological, upon the workers and their families, and has resulted in the death of many workers in recent years.

According to scientists, DBCP particularly targets the human endocrine system, which controls all the chemical processes that are critical to the development and functioning of the body's various anatomical systems. In 1977, 35 workers in a DBCP plant in California were found to be sterile. The toxin was immediately outlawed in California, and two years later the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the production and usage of DBCP throughout the US, using as evidence the chemical's poisonous effects on human chromosomes and its ability to persist as a toxin in soil and groundwater. As a result of these and other findings, the World Health Organization has classified DBCP as “extremely hazardous. Despite these findings, your company continued to export the chemical to many countries without notifying the workers of the toxicity of the pesticide, nor advising any special handling of the chemical.

I urge you to respect the human rights of the workers, as well as the ruling of the Nicaraguan court and pay the damages awarded to the affected banana workers, their families and the surrounding communities. Under international law and in consideration of basic human rights, your company should accept its responsibility for perpetuating the use of a chemical which was long known to be unsafe.